The O’s are keen to boost their squad before summer transfer window shuts on Thursday August 31

Steve Davis knows Leyton Orient could do with strengthening up front, but conceded they have been trying in recent weeks.

The O’s had a rude awakening to life in the National League on Saturday after suffering a 2-0 defeat at Sutton United.

Orient were poor for long parts of the game at Gander Green Lane and Davis is looking to boost his squad.

“We have tried over the last couple of weeks to identify a particular player up front and similar to what Sutton have got really,” said Davis.

“Most teams in this league will have a big, strong and powerful forward and you need to try and get that type of player in for these sort of games where it will be a lot of long balls and they will press you high.

“It was hard to play out of the back because of the way Sutton set up, so we need to find another one and Saturday outlined the importance of having a big striker up there to keep the ball, so you can build up the pitch.

“We weren’t able to do that because we won very little in the air, so everything we did pump forward came back. It is something we highlighted a couple of weeks ago and hopefully we can bring that type of player in.”

Another thing Orient had to adjust to in the National League is only naming five people on the bench.

In the Football League you can list seven players, but the likes of Tristan Abrahams, Myles Judd and Jamie Sendles-White had to miss out at Gander Green Lane.

Davis discussed why he decided to include Josh Koroma and Rommy Boco in his match day squad over Norwich City loanee Abrahams.

He added: “Josh can play a number of positions where as Tristan really is a number nine, so I felt we can get a bit more versatility from the other two.

“Boco can play any of three positions and with five substitutes it is very difficult, so you have to think of positional changes and players that can play more than one position.

“It is more helpful having those type of players on the bench than people who can’t, but these type of games are good.”

The former Crewe Alexandra boss, who was only appointed Orient head coach on July 14, wants his team to be braver going forward.

He was disappointed they failed to play their game when the U’s tried to press them higher up the pitch.

Davis said: “Now we have played a team like Sutton who play this way we know what sort of teams we need to put out against them.

“I was disappointed we didn’t play our football when we had time to do that, so we need to be brave and courageous in the way we are playing.

“I want us to be brave and work harder to break teams down because we ended up pumping a lot of balls forward against Sutton.

“Maybe that was down to how they defended, but at the same time we have still got to play under that type of pressure.”

Orient will look to be braver tomorrow night when they host Solihull Moors at Brisbane Road (7.45pm kick-off).

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